Crumbling law and Order in Bengaluru

Gauri Lankesh, senior journalist,naxal sympathiser and huge critic of Hindutva was found murdered outside her home in Bengaluru yesterday. If the initial reports are to be believed then the editor of <Gauri Lankesh Patrikey> had come out of her car to open her house’s main gate when the criminals fired at her seven times. She was found lying on her porch by her neighbours. Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar told IANS “A total of seven bullets were fired out of which four missed the target and hit the wall of the house. Three bullets had hit her — two in her chest area and one in the forehead.” The police are examining CCTV footage and have found four cartridges.

With this murder once again the commies and sickularists of this country has started drawing parallels between the ghastly murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru, that of Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013, Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in 2015 and MM Kalburgi in Dharwad in 2015. It is too early to come to any conclusion about this murder as investigations are underway, but many have started crying hoarse about this killing as an assault on freedom of press by the powers that be.

Our youth icon ( pun intended) and ‘PM in waiting’ Rahul Gandhi is leading the pack by his scathing attack on the BJP, accusing it of smothering dissent. He tweeted from USA “Anybody who speaks against the RSS/BJP is attacked & even killed. They want to impose only one ideology which is against the nature of India.” He didn’t even leave the PM and accused him of being hands in gloves with the perpetrators of this crime. He tweeted “Sometimes the PM speaks under pressure but the entire idea is to crush dissent and this is resulting in a very serious problem in India.” Nitin Gadkari,a union minister came to immediate defense of his party and said in a press meet that “The allegations are baseless and false. We have nothing to do with the Gauri Lankesh incident…the BJP’s, the central government or any of our organisations have no relation to this incident… we condemn this,”
But the real question which this murder has given birth to is the crumbling law and order situation in Bengaluru in particular and Karnataka in general. The city of Garden has always been a nightmare for women folks. 2017 started on a bad note for a number of women in Bengaluru. According to a report in <Banglore Mirror>, drunk and unruly men molested and abused women revellers despite the presence of 1500 policemen. The incident took place at Bengaluru’s MG Road and Brigade Road where thousands of people have assembled to welcome the new year.

In what could be best described as ‘night of shame’ for Bengaluru, the women became easy target for hooligans in the guise of revellers. When women were leaving the pubs they were met with hooligans who tried to molest and accost them.

One can say that Lankesh was involved with Maoists and made many enemies through this. But the policed failed to comprehend the situation and seem to have been caught completely unawares.

One can see the apathy of police in such matters that two of the suspects of the Dabholkar case are still absconding. The media attention which these cases get starts waning and gives the police a way to waylaid the cases and getaway with their incompetence. The longer these cases take, the less the likelihood of finding evidence or the culprits. It is time that we make amendments in the policing structure of the city to ensure safety of its people.